Russ Rymer is the author of "Genie: A Scientific Tragedy", which became a NOVA television documentary and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and "American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory", which was nominated for a "Los Angeles Times" Book of the Year Award and named a "New York Times" Notable Book. Rymer, currently the Joan Leiman Jacobson Non-Fiction Writer in Residence at Smith College, has contributed articles to "The New Yorker", "National Geographic", "Harper's", "Atlantic", and the New York Times Maga"zine. "